Friday, March 22, 2013

Responsibility vs obligation

So I ran across this on Facebook, about 20 mins after I gave one of my dogs away.


I 98% agree with this.

Pets are a great way to teach kids responsibility and compassion. Sometimes however it is more responsible to give a pet up than to keep trying to fix them.

We got a second Dog 10 months ago. He was left in an empty home with another dog. He freaks out when you leave him home alone or kennel him. HE actually ate my wall once. HE is afraid of teenagers.

We recently moved and our new home is on a much busier street. It seems like all the progress we had made with him over the last 6 months has come undone. He is getting jumpier by the day

Yesterday he broke out a window and went after the mail man. My other dog followed him through the window. I decided the stress was too much for the youngest dog and gave him to a family member who lives way out in the country. He knows this person and spends a lot of time there anyways.

I felt really bad sending him away. I try to teach my kids that your responsibility to others does not end when it becomes hard or inconvenient and here I am sending my dog away because I just can't handle  him. His new home has a LOT more time to dedicate to him but it still seemed a lot like passing the buck to me.

Now I have found out that one of my Dogs bit the mailman. The dog catcher thinks it will all be ok as I have done my best to rectify the situation and sent the instigator away. I had not realized that he was bit when I made the decision but now I realize I made the right one. My responsibility is not only to my pets but to everyone else around me.

That is also something my kids need to learn. You have to make decisions for the good of the whole, not just yourself







Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Many parents from Steubenville should be ashamed of their offspring.

I have been following, with a broken heart, the trial coverage of the Steubenville rape case. I am shocked that these 2 young men are being portrayed as victims. They repeatedly raped and humiliated a young woman. laughed about it online and then the media cries foul when they become registered sex offenders.

WTF I don't think I even want to live in this world anymore.

 This article gives a good summary of what the boys did and the media reaction to their sentencing for anyone who is unfamiliar with the case. 

I would like to think  Steubenville is a cesspool of moral degradation but I have a strange feeling it is much like any other town. What these boys did is sick enough but the fact that their (and the victims) peers took pictures and encouraged this behavior is where my mind truly boggles. The fact that some of their parents are trying to save them nearly makes my brain explode.

I have 2 boys whom I love with all my heart. I am very anti corporal punishment. I think children deserve to be treated with respect.

But if I EVER  EVER  EVER!!!  found out they took pictures of something like this for any reason other than to text them immediately to a police officer you can bet your ass I would not be begging the courts to go easy on them. In fact if my kids had a lick of sense (which by this point they would have obviously proved they did not and that I was a horrid failure as a parent) they would be BEGGING the judge for the maximum sentence just so I could not get my hand on them.

We are responsible to teach our children right from wrong. We are responsible to teach them that the right thing and the easy thing are rarely the same. We have a responsibility to all of society not to unleash self absorbed, heartless, assholes on the Jane (and John) Doe's of this world. If despite our best efforts our kids turn out to be predators or soulless deviants we have a responsibility to hold them out and allow justice to be served. If you are not prepared to do so you should not have children.

 Having children is a huge responsibility. Not just in terms of having to care for them but because how you raise them will affect EVERY living being they come in contact with their entire lives